Listening to these days....

• "Flux" Bloc Party. This frenetic dance track fits in with the sound of A Weekend in the City, but far more dance-oriented than anything on the album. One of their best singles, in my opinion.
• "Until the End of Time" Justin Timberlake and Beyonce. Adding Beyonce to this--the sixth release from Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds--feels like a gimmick. She doesn't real add anything to the song other than her name, but having this decade's two hottest boy/girl band turned singers together on one track is a treat. It's today's equivalent to Michael Jackson and Diana Ross getting together and covering a sultry Prince ballad. Shamelessly fantastic.
• "Rockferry" Duffy. Expect Duffy to pop up on all the lists of who the pundits think will make it big in 2008. This first taste of her raspy, retro-60s pop definitely has me interested in her album. The next Amy Winehouse? Perhaps.
• "Call the Shots" Girls Aloud. Girls Aloud may have finally made an album I really like (Tangled Up, released yesterday). This second single is more conventional than "Sexy!...No No No," but no less enticing. It has a stronger '80s vibe, but still a modern europop undercurrent. Surely a Xenomania production.
• "The Racing Rats" The Editors. Overall, the album was only so-so, but this is one of An End Has a Start's better songs. I love the "surface of the Earth" refrain, for whatever reason.
• "Saving My Face" KT Tunstall. Another good mid-tempo pop song from the Scot singer. I read something on-line about this being about preventing middle age women from ruining themselves with plastic surgery. Very funny.
• "Sing" Annie Lennox and Friends. Apart from the PSA at the beginning and the folksy ending this is a decent pop song. Funny how audible Madonna is, despite being in a "choir of 23." Did she edge everyone else away from the mic? Probably.
• "Baby When the Light" David Guetta Feat. Cozi. This is another cool dance song from Guetta. Sounds amazing like Dannii Minogue's "All I Wanna Do."
• "Love's Not a Competition (But I'm Winning)" Kaiser Chiefs. One of the better tracks from a great album. It's not getting an official release, but it has been getting airplay lately.
• "Love Is a Losing Game" Amy Winehouse. Sounds like Amy and the Kaisers could have quite the debate about the game of love. Leave it to them and enjoy the songs. This haunting one took on a deeper meaning in the fall when it became the first performance from Winehouse after weeks of cancellations. Her rendition at the Mercury Prize award show was quite stunning. Considering all the trouble her husband's been in and out of lately, the lyrics are pretty poignant too. This is the fifth single from Back to Black.